


The Puzzle

by hhhhhhhappycow



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Atsumu being a good boyfriend, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-24
Updated: 2020-06-24
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:42:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24898630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hhhhhhhappycow/pseuds/hhhhhhhappycow
Summary: Sakusa likes seeing things through to completion. But sometimes circumstances don't allow for that.
Relationships: Miya Atsumu/Sakusa Kiyoomi
Comments: 8
Kudos: 211





	The Puzzle

Atsumu has never liked puzzles much. He has never had the patience to sit down and while away the hours, watching as the gaps became smaller and smaller and a scene appears before his eyes. He was never really inside long enough for that: On weekends, and the rare weekdays without volleyball practice, he would be outside honing his skills.

He can recall a time that Osamu bought a puzzle: A big one thousand piecer, the kind Sakusa gets so absorbed in. Atsumu had waited until he was about three-quarters of the way through before tipping the table. It had led to another fight, of course, and to this day he isn't sure why he did it other than to irritate Osamu. Maybe he was just bored that Osamu was preoccupied with something other than volleyball. Something he couldn't also enjoy.

He never touches Sakusa's puzzles. He wouldn't dare. Sakusa puts so much time into each one, and Atsumu thinks that watching him complete them almost makes them seem not dull.

Sakusa's fingers slide over the smooth, bumpy surface of the parts he's already completed, and twist a piece around again and again, as though he's feeling its shape to find its space rather than using his sight, and he slots it in deftly after a few seconds. The room is silent and there is a quiet intensity to his gaze. A tiny smile steals across his face whenever he completes one, permitted just for a moment. He often leaves them on the table for a day or two before he can bear to clear them away, and then only does so when Atsumu tells him he has taken a photo of the final version.

Sakusa is hunched over the table in the dim light, finishing a puzzle by lamplight. It's late: They had finished dinner hours previously, and since than Atsumu had spent some time by himself, first watching a movie and then stretching and getting ready for bed, while Sakusa sat upstairs in the small study (Atsumu already thinks of it as Sakusa's room or the Puzzle Room, for he's the only one using it and that's all it's used for). When he stomps up he makes sure to take his time strolling down the corridor between the bedroom and the bathroom, peeking in the study at Sakusa's silhouetted frame with each passing.

On his final voyage between the two rooms, Atsumu pauses. He leans in the doorframe and yawns dramatically, stretching both arms above his head so that his shirt rides up. “Well, I'm off ter bed. Night.”

“Mm. Night.” Sakusa doesn’t even look up from the desk.

Well, there go any aspirations Atsumu had for a fun night. With another yawn, he gives up, retreating into the bedroom.

The room is dark and cool, Sakusa’s bedside lamp the only light besides the moon shining through the open window. He slides into the bed, settling in among the quiet. The sole sounds are the crickets outside and the occasional breeze stirring the curtains.

A muffled sigh and the sound of something dropping had him sitting bolt upright, pulled from the easy atmosphere rocking him to sleep.

That is not a good sign.

He gets up and pads down the corridor, wincing at the feeling of the cool wooden floor against his now warm toes until he's at the study.

Sakusa is still hunched over, only now he has his chin resting on his fists, and the concentration has shifted slightly into something else. It's a transformation Atsumu knows well: From an intrigued fascination to the vaguely hurting look of someone who isn't quite sure why they're so upset.

Being the asshole he is, he knocks on the doorframe lazily with one hand and asks; “S'up, Omi? You not bored of that thing yet?”

Sakusa frowns up at him. A single curl hangs low over one eye and Atsumu is so focused on it he nearly misses his next words. “There's a piece missing.”

Ah.

Atsumu has dreaded that this day would come.

Slinking into the room, he asks; “You sure it's not in the box?”

“Yes, I'm sure. I double-checked.” Sakusa holds the box up to show him. It is indeed empty.

Atsumu pads in to look at the puzzle. It's a large landscape scene, with a couple of cows in the foreground. Sakusa wasn't really big on animal puzzles, although he had liked the one Atsumu got him for his birthday as a joke gift two years ago, of a couple of weasels. It had taken him forever to find it. He had teasingly called them Kiyoomi and Motoya, and Komori had to his credit found it amusing. Sakusa less so, but he had completed the puzzle, nevertheless.

This one is of fields with a river flowing through, and a row of trees set back behind it in the distance. It does not really resemble either of their home towns or Osaka. The sky is a striking blue, refracted in the water, and the meadows golden. The green and brown of the trees act as a barrier between the two. A small mahogany shape towards the left edge where the desk peeks through reveals the location that the piece is missing from.

“Nice photo”, Atsumu comments.

“It’s a painting”, Sakusa replies immediately and then scowls. Astumu squints and sees that it is. There are faint brush strokes. Huh. “I can't just leave it like this.”

Atsumu places a hand on Sakusa’s shoulder and revels in that Sakusa doesn’t shrug him off: It has taken some time to get to this point, where casual touches remain casual. “Well, have you looked anywhere else yet?” He sinks to his knees and nudges Sakusa’s own out of the way so he can half-crawl under the table. “Maybe you dropped it.”

“I don’t think so.” Sakusa’s voice comes muffled overhead. “I only just took it out of the box.”

“Yeah, but ya opened the box downstairs yesterday, remember? It could have dropped out any time.”

Sakusa merely hums in response.

Crawling around the study on his hands and knees is certainly not how Atsumu expects his night to end. After a few minutes, Sakusa leaves the room, only to return with a pair of gloves to join in the search. He clicks his tongue when Atsumu moves the chair a little too forcefully, and snickers when Atsumu hits his head on the table, but otherwise remains silent.

Once they have scoured every inch of the room, Sakusa sits back on his haunches, gloved hands resting on his thighs.

Atsumu glances across at him and quirks an eyebrow.

“You haven’t taken it, have you?”

Atsumu splutters. “What would I have touched yer puzzle for?” The question had stung a little: He often goes out of his way not to mess with one of Sakusa’s puzzles. “Are ya sure it weren’t one of those joke ones ya can get that has one piece missing?”

“It’s not.” Sakusa’s face is wringing itself out, his expression darkening by the minute. Atsumu knows he isn’t mad, not really, just upset, and that’s why he’s acting so snippy.

So when Sakusa leaves the room without another word and starts thundering throughout the house, flipping the lights on in each room he stalks into, Atsumu follows and helps him look.

If it was just Atsumu combing through each room, the place would probably look like a tip, he thinks. However, with Sakusa putting everything back in order, even the things that had been left out from earlier on that evening, the house was likely tidier than it had been before their search began.

They make their way in silence along the corridor, and then down the stairs and all throughout the living room, the dining room and the kitchen, stacking and rearranging the various items that define their lives: Family photos, workout equipment, various tubs of cleaning fluids.

Each of their investigations turns up empty. Atsumu knows Sakusa will search until they either find it or he's too exhausted to continue.

Unfortunately, the latter comes first.

It's around one a.m. by then, and they're both in the kitchen.

Atsumu has just finished shuffling the kitchen towel holder and the toaster back into their rightful places, in case the puzzle piece had somehow magically leaped behind them, when he notices Sakusa staring at the trashcan with a fixed expression of horror.

“Erm… Omi? You ‘kay?”

“What if it fell in with the plastic wrap?” Sakusa shudders slightly, and Atsumu sighs.

“I didn't take the trash out yet. If we still can't find it tomorrow, I'll look through. Ya don't have to be there”, he adds, as an afterthought.

“Thank you.” He relaxes slightly, and Atsumu’s suspicions that Sakusa’s body is winding down for the night are confirmed when he yawns.

“Hey”, Atsumu says, moving forward to knock their elbows together. “Let’s go to bed.”

To his surprise, Sakusa nods with no resistance, following in his stead as he ascends the stairs.

When they pass the study, Sakusa pauses to stare inside, and Atsumu glances back. Sakusa’s wrists are twisting this way and that, his fingers knotting together.

“Maybe I should just break it up now”, he murmurs after a moment. “If we find the piece, I can always redo it.”

“What? Are ya kidding me? After all yer hard work? No way, Omi.” Stepping back to Sakusa’s side, Atsumu shuts the study door, a little too firmly: The noise is loud, and Sakusa rocks back on his heels slightly and blinks at him, sleepy but wide-eyed. “Come on, we’ll be more likely to find it after we’ve rested.”

The room is cool when they re-enter, the wind now blowing in long gusts through the window. Atsumu slams it shut before sliding back into the sheets, and Sakusa joins him moments after. Although they lay without talking, side by side, their arms barely touching, Atsumu can tell that Sakusa’s mind is still working.

“It’s okay”, he says into the silence and clears his throat. “We’ll find it.”

He feels Sakusa nod. No reply comes through the darkness, but Sakusa does wrap a warm arm around him a minute later and returns the kiss that Atsumu places against his cheek.

"Thank you."

*

Atsumu finds the missing puzzle piece kicked under the fridge two days later.


End file.
